Layanee of Ledge and Gardens is the winner, chosen at random by a disinterested party, of the Fiskars tool organizer. Congratulations Layanee! On the next three Mondays, December 6 (which is the actual anniversary of my first post, the 13th and 20th, I'll have a new Giveaway. Plenty of time to win a present for yourself, or for a gardening friend.
Everywhere you go there are instructions on how to be more ‘green’. The Reduce, Reuse, Recycle logo shows up on recycling barrels, and on our clothes. We organic gardeners have certainly been recycling as we turn our garden and kitchen waste into valuable compost, but a whole new level of reusing and recycling is turning up in the garden. I’ve managed to rescue chicken wire fencing and cardboard from our transfer station, but in his new book The…
Yesterday I was visiting Sue Reed, author of the excellent Energy Wise Landscape Design, to talk about her book and our local landscape. You will be hearing more about our talk soon. Before I left we walked around the house to see how she had edited and added to the elements of her own landscape. More on that later, too. As we came around the southern corner of the house we saw this energetic bunch of Johnny Jump…
With so many people interested in keeping a backyard flockof chickens for eggs, and maybe even for meat, I've been visiting local henhouses, partly to be able to assure potential hen farmers that a henhouse doesn't have to be a Palais de Poulet, and to show you some of the clever designs hen farmers have come up with to make their own work as easy as possible. Emma is the youngest hen farmer I know. She is an…
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." Henry David Thoreau. I have long been an admirer of Thoreau. I remember a conversation with a friend of mine, then a student at NYU, about what Thoreau would think about returning to a simple…
In December of 2007 (!) I began my career as a garden blogger. I hardly knew what a blog was in those days. I had just discovered Garden Rant, and my friend BJ Roche at Fiftyshift said that as a writer I had to have a blog. And so commonweeder was born. What I knew about garden blogs - a blog was a place to share information and experiences and opinions through the Internet. I did not imagine…
One of the best ideas I had this year was to put a small vegetable garden right in front of the eastern end of our house which faces due south. The soil here drains very well and thaws out very early in the spring. If you want to see the 'lasagna garden' method I used on April 4, click here. The planting bed next to the house included a yellow loosestrife and 'Terra Cotta' achillea next to the…
Thanksgiving begins in the kitchen. Although I have handed out the recipe, I am still responsible for making the stuffing. The turkey barely fit in the roasting pan. I needed Henry's help. Betsy was the host this year. It's good she has so much counter space. Here she is, almost ready. I have to say that as devoted as I am to eating local food, I am happy that we can also eat delicious fruits and vegetables from…
I wanted to share a special Thanksgiving memory today. Thanksgiving is a harvest festival, with gratitude for the fruits of the soil that have sustained us through another year. It is also a time of gratitude for the other blessings of our life, especially the family and friends with whom we celebrate. Sometimes it is the Thanksgivings celebrated far from those we love that have a special place in our memory. As the current news is so filled…
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